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The term "soft walk" has been around for many years but has seen its usage grow with the growing emphasis on trying to debunk baseball research and data, like on-base percentage.

Some use the term to describe Adam Dunn's on-base prowess (saying that when he walks in an "RBI situation" that he is actually hurting the team), but what they fail to realize is that a walk serves one very important function of the game: not getting out. If everyone on a team had an OBP of 1.000, and they were all from walks (which can be generated from patient hitting), then that team would score an infinite number of runs in the first inning and would win every game whenever the other team chose to forfeit.

"Soft walk" is a shortcut term that people who don't like to think or research the game like to use.